One Thousandth Digitized Book Was Gift of BNC

The Brandeis National Committee's gift of the one millionth book to the Brandeis Libraries is now the one thousandth book to be digitized by the Brandeis Library on the Internet Archive. It is online for the world to see.

"The Law of God," also known as the Leeser Bible, was translated by Isaac Leeser in 1845 and was the first Jewish translation of the Five Books of Moses. Leeser based it on German Jewish translations and on traditional Jewish Bible scholarship while aiming to make its style as close to the King James translation as possible. The Leeser translation became widely accepted and remained the standard Jewish translation until the publication of the Jewish Publication Society translation in 1917.

Isaac Leeser was a religious leader of 19th-century American Jewry. He was the cantor of Philadelphia's Sephardic synagogue, Mikveh Israel, and in addition, he published many textbooks for children and translated the Sephardic prayer book. Leeser founded the first American rabbinical school and the newspaper The Occidental.

In 1996, the Brandeis University National Women's Committee (now known as the Brandeis National Committee) donated a copy of the Leeser Bible in celebration of the one millionth book.